The proposal for the new Bunnings Warehouse in West St is another big boost for Mount Isa.
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The plan with Mount Isa City Council now out for public review is for a material change of use for plant nursery, shop and show at the old council depot and storage yard on the corner of West and Alma St.
If approved and goes ahead it would mean that Bunnings would move out of their Camooweal St premises in the Central Business District and move to this larger premises in the northern suburbs.
It might mean that some people will have farther to go to get their Saturday morning sausage sizzle fix but it will provide Mount Isa with more hardware options on a 1.5 hectare site.
The proposed devleopment will have a total retail area of 5607 square metres with 172 on site car parks including four disabled access spaces and two traler bay parking spaces with access via West and Alma Sts from 6am to 9pm seven days a week.
The proposal will be a boost for employment with 120 construction jobs on a $15 million project and around 70 operational jobs ongoing.
The site backs on to the Leichhardt River but is not expected to result in a worsening of flood levels and flooding impact according to the site-based Stormwater Management Plan.
While the development is good news for the city and assuming it goes ahead (we have not seen many objections when we put the proposal out to our readers) it is also important to Bunnings.
They would not be planning this investment in Mount Isa unless they saw a commercial opportunity and there were some interesting figures in the planning document.
The plan said the current expenditure on hardware in the Isa region is expected to generate demand for $35.4 million in 2019 and the new site will help reduce escape expenditure from 30 to 17 percent, meaning more money is spent locally.
Interesting that amount of money supports 20,000 sq m of floorspace and even with the new Bunnings and other operators there would still be a shortfall so there certainly sufficient demand in the region – Derek Barry